Hi folks. I am a collector of Twins baseball cards. About 10-15 years ago, I made it a goal to get at least one card from every Twins player who had a card. That goal seems to have morphed into getting each Twins card for every Topps set (and a few other brands here and there). I currently have more than 2,400 cards from about 750 unique players.

This is my second post in my series about Minnesota Twins baseball cards. Please read my first post here for deeper detail on my series.

1964 TOPPS GIANTS

This unique set from the 1960s is super cool. It’s short and sweet with only the best players. The cards are 3.125” x 5.25.” Because of their size, they really get your attention. Each card has a full color image of the player. There is a baseball at the bottom with the player’s name, team, and position. To my knowledge, this 1964 set contains the first stand-alone Tony Oliva card (#44). As I said above, the set contains an extremely limited number of cards. There are only three Twins cards.

THE BEST

Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew fight for the best card here. Oliva looks so young. Harmon’s picture shows him holding two bats, one of which has the number 29 on the knob. That’s too early for Rod Carew. Depending on when the picture was taken, that’s likely the bat of Wally Post.

Because it’s his first stand-alone card, I’m going with the Tony Oliva as the best Twins card in the 1964 Topps Giants set.

PERSONAL FAVORITE

In 2023, my son and I attended the National Sports Card Convention in Chicago. It was quite the experience – overwhelming. We had a wonderful time. One of my purchases was the graded Harmon Killebrew (#38) below. For that reason and the memories made, that is my personal favorite of the 1964 Topps Giants.

MOST OBSCURE PLAYER

Well, when there are only three cards in the set, somebody has to be “most obscure.” By the process of elimination, the great Camilo Pascual (#32) is the choice for the most obscure. After all, the other two players are in the Hall of Fame.

Pascual came to the Twins when the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota. Washington was famous for signing Cuban players, of which Camilo was one of many. He was a very good pitcher with a career spanning 18 years. He started his career in Washington in 1954, continued with six years in Minnesota, then finished up with the new Washington franchise, Cincinnati, the Dodgers and Cleveland. He was a five-time all-star and received MVP votes in two years. While playing for the Twins, he led the American League in strikeouts three times (1961-63), complete games twice (1962-63), and shoutouts twice (1961-62). He was a great player. According to Wikipedia, Pascual had a devastating curveball which Ted Williams called, “The most feared curveball in the American League for 18 years.”

Camilo was no slouch at the plate, batting .205 in his career. He is one of only two pitchers to hit two grand slams.

After his playing career he served as a coach and scout including being the Twins pitching coach from 1978-80.

Pascual is in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame.

If you disagree with my opinions, I would love to see your opinions, criticisms, and suggestions in the comments below. Don’t be too hard on me. Let’s have fun with this!